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Is this Sanjukta’s ‘Hum Dekhenge’ performance of the ‘farmer protests’? Watch artists in Delhi perform a weird dance routine

OpIndia Staff
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Is this Sanjukta’s ‘Hum Dekhenge’ performance of the ‘farmer protests’? Watch artists in Delhi perform a weird dance routine

Artists in India appear to have entered the ‘farmer protests’. At Mandi House in Delhi, a few could be spotted performing an extremely unorthodox routine that could only be described as bizarre. Law enforcement authorities stood in silence wearing masks as two male protesters went about moving their bodies weirdly with slogans in the background.

One of the performers wore a yellow t-shirt while the other wore brown. Both of them were equally weird but the one in the brown t-shirt was clearly more enthusiastic about the performance and was enjoying it a lot more than the other.

In the background, the protesters screeched something about ‘Wapas Lao, Wapas Lao’ (bring it back) and ‘Narendra Modi Haay Haay’. The expressions on the faces of the law enforcement personnel could not be deciphered as they were sporting masks.

Some have suggested that the visuals remind one of exorcisms that are performed by Catholic priests to rid a person of demons. However, the astonishing performance reminds one of the ‘Hum Dekhenge’ performance during the anti-CAA protests that had gone viral on social media, and saw the participation of enthusiastic Rahul Gandhi supporter Sanjukta, and attracted much ridicule.

Disappearances, torture, repeated rape, electric shock in genitals: Survivor narrates how Chinese men brutalise Uyghur Muslim women

OpIndia Staff
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Disappearances, torture, repeated rape, electric shock in genitals: Survivor narrates how Chinese men brutalise Uyghur Muslim women

Even as China continues to reject the allegations of ongoing human rights abuses, including sexual assault, in the Xinjiang region, the atrocities against the Uyghur Muslims continue. In a recent revelation by news network BBC, the former detainees of the concentration camps in Xinjiang have spoken out against the brutal sexual torture at the hands of the Chinese regime.

A 42-year-old former detainee named Tursunay Ziawudun, who spent about 9 months in one such camp, stated excruciating details about sexual abuse and organised rape by Han men. She said that Uyghur women were forcibly taken out of their jail cells each night in a dark room and subsequently raped by several masked Chinese men. The victim admitted that she was gang-raped on three occasions.

According to Ziawudun, several women who were forcibly taken away from their cells at night never returned. Recounting the dehumanisation, she emphasised, “You can’t tell anyone what happened, you can only lie down quietly. It is designed to destroy everyone’s spirit.” During her interrogation by the police, she was kicked in the abdomen, resulting in profuse bleeding and blood clot.

Inmates had electric sticks inserted in genital tracts

On one fateful night in May 2018, Ziawudun was evicted out of her cell and presented before a Chinese man. When the men learnt about her condition, they were furious. She was escorted to a dark room and subjected to gruesome sexual torture. “They had an electric stick, I didn’t know what it was, and it was pushed inside my genital tract, torturing me with an electric shock,” she reminisced.

She narrated, “They don’t only rape but also bite all over your body, you don’t know if they are human or animal. They didn’t spare any part of the body, they bit everywhere leaving horrible marks. It was disgusting to look at. I’ve experienced that three times. And it is not just one person who torments you, not just one predator. Each time they were two or three men.” Ziawudun was released from the camp in December 2018.

While recounting the plight of a former cellmate turned alcoholic, she concluded, “(The woman was) like someone who simply existed, otherwise she was dead, completely finished by the rapes. They say people are released, but in my opinion, everyone who leaves the camps is finished. Their goal is to destroy everyone. And everybody knows it.”

Tasked to strip Uyghur women naked prior to rape

Gulzira Auelkhan, a woman from Kazakhstan who was detained for 18 months in one secretive facility, told the BBC that she was coerced into stripping Uyghur women naked, handcuffing and presenting them to Chinese men. She was also forced to clean the rooms after the men systematically raped the women. She added that the perpetrators would pay money to choose the ‘prettiest’ detainee.

The woman recounted, “My job was to remove their clothes above the waist and handcuff them so they cannot move. Then I would leave the women in the room and a man would enter – some Chinese man from outside or policeman. I sat silently next to the door, and when the man left the room I took the woman for a shower.” She said that she felt powerless and had no option other than to assist in the heinous crime.

Teachers at Uyghur camps recount the horror

Qelbinur Sedik, a Chinese language forced to teach at a concentration camp, had approached a policewoman to inquire about the brutal stories of rape and sexual torture in the camp. The cop informed, “Yes, the rape has become a culture. It is gang rape and the Chinese police not only rape them but also electrocute them. They are subject to horrific torture.” The revelation kept Sedik awake all night, forcing her to think about her daughter who had been studying abroad.

Another teacher at the concentration camp, Sayragul Sauytbay, stated that the camp guards took young women away whenever they wanted. “(There were) four kinds of electric shock- the chair, the glove, the helmet, and anal rape with a stick”. She had witnessed the public gang rape of a 20-year-old woman, who was presented before 100 other inmates to make a forced confession.

She added, “After that, in front of everyone, the police took turns to rape her. While carrying out this test, they watched people closely and picked out anyone who resisted, clenched their fists, closed their eyes, or looked away, and took them for punishment. It was absolutely horrendous. I felt I had died. I was dead.”

Detention of Uyghurs is largest since the Holocaust, claims report

A sub-committee of Canada’s House of Commons stated that China has detained over 2 million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in ‘concentration camps’, making it the largest mass detention of minorities since the Holocaust. The situation is grim as the detainees have no access to legal aid, often resulting in an indefinite period of detention and complete isolation from the outside world. “Witnesses stated that punishment for breaking rules can be swift and violent and that women and girls are regularly subjected to sexual abuse and other forms of gender-based violence,” it stated.

Uttarakhand police could deny passport verification if the person habitually posts anti-national content on social media

OpIndia Staff
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Uttarakhand police could deny passport verification if the person habitually posts anti-national content on social media

In a major crackdown against anti-national elements in the state, the Uttarakhand Police has now decided to scrutinise social media contents before clearing their passport or arms license verification.

According to the reports, the Uttarakhand police will also maintain records of persons who post ‘anti-national and anti-social posts’ on social media and the anti-Indian posts will be taken into consideration while verifying passport and arms licenses, said Uttarakhand Director General of Police Ashok Kumar.

Speaking on the concluding day of state police officers’ conference held at police headquarters in Dehradun, DGP Kumar on Tuesday said that the police would scrutinise the accused person’s social media behaviour from now onwards to check if he is habitual of putting such anti-national posts.

“Till now, in cases of any person putting any anti-national posts on social media, the police used to first do his counselling, asking him not to repeat it in future. A case will be registered only if it was a very serious case,” Kumar said.

Another senior police officer privy to the development said, “The decision was taken as there has been an increase in the number of people putting anti-national posts on social media in the state.”

“The social media monitoring team has been keeping a strict vigil to track down such posts and people as it is a clear threat to law & order,” said the officer.

David vs Goliath: When Baby Kumari, a Dalit woman from Bihar, took on billionaire Rihanna

OpIndia Staff
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David vs Goliath: When Baby Kumari, a Dalit woman from Bihar, took on billionaire Rihanna

When billionaire singer-actor Rihanna extended her support to protesting farmers, she became a hero for Indian ‘liberals’. After all, an international celebrity had noticed the ‘protests’ against ‘fascist’ Modi govt. For second consecutive year, the ‘liberals’ had rejoiced in ‘international embarrassment’ to India.

While most ‘liberals’ cheered Rihanna, Mia Khalifa, Greta Thunberg and others, there were some who questioned her locus standi. Amongst them was Baby Kumari from Bihar.

Baby Kumari took on Rihanna and questioned who she is with a few emojis. While the question, obviously, was rhetorical, the ‘liberals’ took it upon themselves to mock Baby Kumari for questioning Rihanna, while she is herself not that popular.

One Parichit Malik, mansplained Baby Kumari and listed out Rihanna’s achievement of having 100 million followers on Twitter and her net worth in millions. He mansplained how Rihanna is one of the highest paid celebrities. Malik topped it up with questioning Kumari ‘who the hell are you’.

Baby Kumari is a Dalit leader and BJP Bihar’s Vice President and ex-MLA who represented Bochahan. Somehow, knowing more about someone who very likely will never manage to win even a panchayat elections in India, is more important than your own leaders.

Congress leader Pravinkumar Biradar mocked Baby Kumari for questioning Rihanna despite having only 24,000 followers. How dare she, right?

Another Congress supporter also mocked her about her lack of followers as against Rihanna’s.

Here are some more such tweets mocking Kumari.

Supporters of Jagtar Singh Johal, British Sikh accused of involvement in assassination of multiple RSS leaders, too joined in to mock Baby Kumari.

Apparently, Baby Kumar, and Indian citizen, who has been a democratically elected leader in the past, has no right to question billionaire Rihanna with millions of followers and is commenting on things she perhaps has no idea about because she has fewer followers on Twitter.

Dopamine rush, freedom from consequences and political objectives: Why the Global Left slanders India while ignoring terrible atrocities elsewhere

K Bhattacharjee
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Dopamine rush, freedom from consequences and political objectives: Why the Global Left slanders India while ignoring terrible atrocities elsewhere

Music sensation Rihanna sparked a torrent of comments on the farmer protests in India after she posted a tweet wondering why people were not talking about the protests in India. Presumably, she was referring to fellow Americans when she said that in which case Americans were not very interested because they have a truckload of mess in their own country to deal with.

Nevertheless, the tweet sparked a great many reactions on social media and liberals in India perceived it as the second coming of Jesus Christ. Greta Thunberg, a school dropout, and other celebrities also jumped into the scene to demonstrate their supposed love for ‘human rights’.

One thing that is self-evident is that it is very easy to deliver sermons when there is absolutely zero possibility that one will have to suffer the consequences of their activism. Rihanna, Greta, Mia Khalifa, such people are far removed from the realities of India and there’s no chance at all that they will themselves be impacted by their activism.

‘The Silence of the Lambs’

In all probability, they will benefit commercially from it because it will increase their popularity among their target audience. What is very clear, however, is that it is a very coordinated attempt by the Global Left and the objective is the same as it has been in the previous years, that is, to undermine the Indian Government.

Another aspect of it is that some human rights violations are a lot worse than others. For instance, an episode where the Indian Government has already held several rounds of discussions with protesters is a million times worse than China forcing Uygur women to sleep with government officials after transporting their husbands to ‘reeducation camps’.

Similarly, the Indian police taking adequate measures to prevent the protesters from running riot again after they went on a rampage on Republic Day is a lot worse than the continued persecution of Hindus in Pakistan and the horrible atrocities they are forced to endure on a daily basis.

The Punjabi farmers protesting at the Singhu Border, who receive tons of subsidies for their crops as well as electricity subsidies and then engages in stubble burning that causes pollution at a massive scale, are undoubtedly a victim of great persecution and deserve much greater attention than the Opioid Crisis in the United States that continues to kill thousands and thousands of people every year.

And quite obviously, the phenomenon of Muslim grooming gangs in the United Kingdom that has victimized thousands and thousands of young girls, some as little as 11 years old, with law enforcement authorities holding themselves back due to fears of being called racist is clearly not a crime grave enough as the passage of a law by the democratically elected Parliament of India.

The Duplicity of the West

Such duplicity from the Global Left is consistent with the double-standards that are observed in the foreign policy of western countries as well. Most of the 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia, so the USA did what was only obvious. They went ahead and invaded Iraq instead.

For good measure, the USA invaded Afghanistan as well but years later, Osama bin Laden was found hiding in a compound extremely near to a Pakistani military academy in Abbottabad. That has not stopped the USA from providing financial aid to Pakistan.

The USA waxes eloquence on human rights abroad while simultaneously, it helps its ally Saudi Arabia to perpetuate one of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in Yemen. None of this makes sense when viewed through the prism of human rights, it is not supposed to.

The USA, as a state, demonstrates such apparently schidzophrenic conduct only to secure its national interests. It does not care two hoots about human rights. Similarly, celebrities have now suddenly developed great concern for ‘farmers’ in India only because of their own personal interests.

Firstly, it will earn them great praise from expected quarters and appreciation is always a source for a dopamine rush. Secondly, they get to feel good about themselves because they can delude themselves into believing that they are having a positive impact on the world. Thirdly, there is zero risk of adverse consequences.

Liberals in India, however, if they had any sense in them, would be more concerned than celebratory after the outpouring of support. When westerners take great interest in a region, it generally does not have a positive impact on its population.

A Global Campaign against India

The greatest evidence of it, of course, is the Arab Spring. Westerners cheered and celebrated the looming eruption of Democracy in the Arab world. Military intervention for the same was also justified. The consequence, however, was not in accordance with what was envisioned and therefore, hardly any western celebrity talks about it.

For instance, hardly anyone talks about the fact that once prosperous Libya is now a failed state due to US intervention and slavery has returned to its streets. That Iraq is now a failed state is hardly talked about as well. The US tried its very best to topple Bashar al-Assad in Syria as well but although they were able to inflict great damage, they have not yet succeeded in turning Syria into another Libya.

The USA has funded Islamic terrorist groups it claimed to be waging a war against and even that does not draw enough attention from ‘human rights advocates’ in the country. All of this only demonstrates that ‘human rights’ is not what has motivated such entities to poke their nose in Indian matters.

The truth of the matter is there is a war against India that is being waged today. More specifically, the war is against the Hindu Civilization. India is the target of a global campaign today and the Indian Government is being targeted for who it is perceived as a representative of and not because of what it does.

Unfortunately for us, we have far too many people in our country who would gladly collude with foreign entities in order to secure their political objectives in India. It is this target audience that the celebrities seek to cater to in order to increase their brand value. In that, they appear to have succeeded.

The Repetitive Nature of the protests

The protests against the Indian Government have acquired an almost repetitive nature that could even be said to have a standard operating procedure. First and foremost, a category of citizens almost invent problems with major reforms that simply do not exist in reality and create much hue and cry about nothing.

Then Indian political parties, who were most probably behind the false fearmongering from the very beginning, come out in the open and announce that apocalypse is imminent. Pliant media acts in tandem with such political entities and creates an illusion of controversy behind perfectly reasonable reforms.

This phase continues for a few weeks before the group ultimately blocks roads and highways and creates harassment for other citizens. Increasing pressure is built upon the government to bend their knee to the mob but the government does not bend, as it should not.

Ultimately, things turn violent and rioters rampage through the streets. Eventually, even though the government has maintained more than sufficient restraint, it is accused of atrocities and human rights violations. Soon, the Global Left jumps in and engages a targeted campaign to undermine the democratically elected government of India.

We saw it all happen during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and we are seeing it all unfold again in the exact same manner. Only ‘farmers’ of Punjab have replaced the Dadis of Shaheen Bagh, the modus operandi remains the same.

It goes without saying that should such protests succeed in their endeavour, Indian democracy will suffer a fatal blow. A strong India is in nobody’s interests, neither China nor the USA. People will cease to believe that voting even matters since mobs could always block highways and roads in order to have their way. It is exactly what the detractors of India want.

Watch: Stray dogs loiter past a patient sleeping on the floor in a Nagpur govt hospital ward

OpIndia Staff
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Watch: Stray dogs loiter past a patient sleeping on the floor in a Nagpur govt hospital ward

In a video that has now gone viral on social media, two stray dogs were seen roaming freely inside a patient ward at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).

As per reports, the incident took place on February 2nd at the said hospital in Nagpur, Maharashtra. After the video drew social media criticism, the hospital authorities stepped in and launched a probe in the case. The dogs were seen walking past a patient, sleeping on the floor, as it crawled under one of the beds. The incident has raised serious questions about the negligence of the hospital administration.

While speaking about the incident, GMCH Superintendent Avinash Gawande said, “Today morning we received information that a video of stray dogs roaming inside the medical college is going viral. We are investigating the incident to verify facts that surfaced in the purported video. We will take action against the people responsible.” He further said that it was important that people did not lose faith in Medical college.

In order to reassure people, Gawande emphasised on corrective measures and appropriate action with respect to the case. “We conduct a security meeting every month. In this month’s meeting, we have formed two teams that pay inspection visits, and if any such incidents are noticed immediate action is taken. If the video is authentic and such an incident has happened, we shall be more vigilant in the future,” he concluded.

Shocking visuals from Sion Hospital in Mumbai

This is not the first time that such an incident has come to light. In May last year, Maharashtra BJP legislator Nitesh N. Rane had posted a video purportedly showing Coronavirus patients sleeping among the dead in at the Sion hospital. It was clearly seen that the dead bodies of infected patients were kept next to those undergoing treatment at the hospital.

A day after the horrific incident was reported, another video had surfaced in which a man with coronavirus infection tried to escape the Sion hospital by jumping out of a window. The hospital sources had later confirmed that the man was a coronavirus patient. He was on his bed, but suddenly got up and ran towards the window. Reportedly he was mentally stressed after getting admitted at the hospital. He was caught by the guards near the gate of the hospital.

‘Dalit thinker’ and ThePrint columnist attacks JNU professor for not knowing about pornstar Mia Khalifa

OpIndia Staff
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‘Dalit thinker’ and ThePrint columnist attacks JNU professor for not knowing about pornstar Mia Khalifa

As former porn-star Mia Khalifa joined the likes of songwriter Rihanna and child-protestor Greta Thunberg to express their ‘solidarity’ with the so-called farmer protestors in India, netizens in the country were in a bit of confusion to grasp who really is Mia Khalifa. Even though some pornographic movie enthusiasts had a fair bit of idea about who she really was, some bonafide men in the real world seemed to have no idea.

Similarly, erudite JNU professor and scientist Anand Ranganathan took to Twitter to say that he was not aware of who Mia Khalifa was. The professor also said that he, in fact, knew child-protestor Greta, however, stated that he had to google to find out who Mia Khalifa was.

Tweet by Professor Anand Ranganathan

As Google threw him some unexpected results, Prof Anand Ranganathan also expressed his fear about Google bombarding him with targeted ads of Mia Khalifa after he sought to gain more knowledge about Mia Khalifa.

Prof Anand Ranganathan’s unfamiliarity with the pornographic world and icons seems to have hurt self-proclaimed ‘Dalit Thinker’, who is not a Dalit himself, and columnist at The Print – Dilip Mandal. The angry Mandal resorted to hurling casteist abuses against Anand Ranganathan for his lack of awareness about Mia Khalifa.

Tweet by Dilip Mandal

The ‘thinker’ Dilip Mandal, perhaps a Mia Khalifa enthusiast himself, targeted Anand Ranganathan by referring to him as an ‘Upper Caste’ and went on to say the JNU professor may dislike or criticise Mia Khalifa for her stand on the ‘farmer’ protests, however, not knowing her should be considered ‘criminal’ and ‘blasphemous’ in the domain of journalism and mass communication.

The casteist attacks of Mandal, however, did not stop there. Mandal, who has a strange habit of co-relating pretty much every issue with caste, asked whether Prof Ranganathan is so angry because it hurt his caste pride.

Yet another tweet by Dilip Mandal

It is really perplexing to know about the bizarre abilities of Dilip Mandal to weave a caste narrative if a professor is unaware of someone who was involved in the pornographic industry. One is left wondering how not being a porn enthusiast turns one into a casteist or is evidence of one’s ‘upper caste pride’. One is also perplexed at his angst as he terms ignorance about Mia Khalifa as ‘blasphemous and criminal’.

Rihanna, porn star Mia Khalifa extends support to protesting ‘farmers’

Earlier in the day, Rihanna and former porn-star Mia Khalifa showed their ‘solidarity’ with the Indian farmers. The anti-farm law agitations, which eventually culminated into violence and rioting on India’s 71st Republic Day, have attracted the support of several international influencers.

Singer Rihanna shared an article by CNN titled, “India cuts internet around New Delhi as protesting farmers clash with police” and tweeted, “Why aren’t we talking about this?! #FarmersProtest”.

Soon, Lebanese-American porn star and ‘webcam model’ Mia Khalifa became the latest entrant to the community of international influencers, hailing the anti-farm law protestors in India.

She tweeted, “What in the human rights violations is going on? They cut the internet around New Delhi?#FarmersProtest” The former internationally-acclaimed pornstar had also shared a picture of anti-farm law protestors, where one of them could be seen holding a placard saying, “Stop Killing farmers.”

MEA issues statement

After several international artists like Rihanna, pornstars like Mia Khalifa and climate activists like Greta Thunberg tweeted in support of the protest by so-called farmers, who had run amok in the capital on 26th January in a planned insurrection, the Ministry of External Affairs has issued a statement. The MEA statement urges people to first research and understand the issue at hand before commenting on the same. 

After the celebrities, politicians like pro-Khalistan Canadian MP Jagmeet Singh and US Vice President Kamala Harris’ niece Meena Harris, too, extended their support to the ‘farmer’ protests. 

The MEA went on to say that “The temptation of sensationalist social media hashtags and comments, especially when resorted to by celebrities and others, is neither accurate nor responsible”.

Past shenanigans of The Print columnist, Dilip Mandal

The Print columnist and self-proclaimed ‘Dalit thinker’, who is not a Dalit himself, is not new to bizarre controversies and injecting the caste angle where there exists none. Earlier, The Print published an article by Dilip Mandal that essentially says that a ‘Muslim’ who criticises Muslims and doesn’t toe the Islamist line is a Murtad, an apostate.

Article in The Print, written by Dilip Mandal, headlined “Hindi news anchors such as Rubika Liyaquat and Sayeed Ansari are like Muslim leaders of BJP” made the following assumptions: 

  1. Those who criticise the shameful conduct of a section of Muslims, like the Tablighi Jamaat during the Coronavirus pandemic, are betraying Islam.
  2. Those Muslims who criticise fellow Muslims for their shameful conduct and don’t toe the Hinduphobic, Islamist line on issues like the CAA and NRC are doing so under some sort of pressure from the ruling dispensation.
  3. Those Muslims who do all of the above and then quote the Quran are somehow conflicted about their faith.
  4. The views aired by Muslim anchors on news channels, that don’t toe the Islamist line are merely a performance that they are bound to give due to the largely “majoritarian media”. 
  5. The casteist author says that Muslim anchors tweak their identity on camera because they are catering to a “Hindu audience” and they might be completely different from their relatives. However, Hindu anchors don’t have that burden and can be “equally communal or secular” in their private lives as well.

We had written a detailed rebuttal to the deranged rant by Dilip Mandal. This is not all, though.

In December 2019, Dilip Mandal was accused by the students of Makhanlal University of creating caste divide and harassing students who belonged to upper caste.

One of the ex-student of the university, Rakesh Tripathi, who is also a BJP leader, while speaking to OpIndia said that it is a shame that teachers like Dilip Mandal are trying to fan caste divide amongst the students studying in a reputed organisation like this one. Extending his support to the protesting students, Tripathi said that they have maligned the reputation of the university.

Interestingly, Dilip Mandal in the same journalist and a columnist associated with Shekhar Gupta’s The Print, who had in 2019, accused Twitter of being Brahmanvadi for not awarding him with a Blue Tick. Dilip Mandal had then urgedpeople to trend ‘Brahmanvadi Twitter’ on the social media platform giving a sneak peek into his casteist mentality.

Watch: Stumbling wonder Rakesh Tikait suffers a mishap as stage collapses in Haryana

OpIndia Staff
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Watch: Stumbling wonder Rakesh Tikait suffers a mishap as stage collapses in Haryana

‘Farmer leader’ Rakesh Tikait and other ‘farmer leaders’ suffered a mishap in Jind, Haryana where a Mahapanchayat was underway. They were standing on a stage amidst a significant crowd when the stage, unfortunately, collapsed.

During the video clip, Rakesh Tikait and another leader were on the screen when suddenly, they disappeared from it. As the video moves forward, we learn that it was the stage that collapsed. It is not yet clear if anyone was hurt in the incident.

Rakesh Tikait has been at the forefront of the ‘farmer protests’. Earlier, visuals of him crying profusely at the protest site and threatening suicide had gone viral on the internet. It was also reported that he had broken into tears after he was thrashed by Khalistanis.

The protests that started as a farmer rally has turned into a caste showdown as farmer leaders are trying to mobilize protestors on caste lines. Consequently, such ‘Mahapanchayats’ are being organised at various places.

Despite the protests losing credibility following the massive loss of face on Republic Day, Rakesh Tikait appears to have mastered the art of stumbling from one fumble to the next without any loss of enthusiasm, both literally and figuratively.

‘Twitter cannot assume the role of Court and justify non-compliance’: Exclusive details of Govt notice after platform unblocked genocide hashtag accounts

OpIndia Staff
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‘Twitter cannot assume the role of Court and justify non-compliance’: Exclusive details of Govt notice after platform unblocked genocide hashtag accounts

The Indian Government has sent a notice to Twitter for violating Indian laws by unblocking the accounts and tweets that trended a controversial hashtag claiming that Prime Minister Modi was planning a ‘farmer genocide’ in the country.

The government has also threatened a 7 year jail term and fine.

The government stated that “Twitter Cannot Assume the Role of Court and Justify Non-Compliance.” According to Indian laws, “the intermediary is bound to comply with the order of the Designated Officer authorized by the Central Government, and in case of non-compliance, statutory consequences shall follow.”

The notice said that it was “astonishing” that Twitter was “commenting upon “significant issues relating to freedom of speech” relating to the power of the Central Government under section 69A of the Act and the constitutional desirability of the interim order dated 31.1.2021.”

“It may be noted that the impracticability or disproportionality of the said measure cannot be decided at the instance of twitter which is an intermediary bound by the orders of the Central Government,” the notice said.

The government notice also stated, “Having considered in totality, the contents of the interim order, the oral submissions of the advocate/representative of Twitter at the Committee meeting, and also the mail from Twitter expressing its disobedience of the legal blocking orders, the competent authority is satisfied that it is necessary and also expedient in the interest of public order and also for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to public order that Twitter, as an intermediary under section 2[1][w] of the act is once again directed to block for access by the public, the said Twitter handles and also the said hashtag with immediate effect.”

Around 250 tweets and accounts were withheld in India on the 1st of February after the controversial hashtag trended on the platform on the 30th of January. The accounts of The Caravan, Kisan Ekta Morcha, actor Sushant Singh were some of the most prominent to be withheld.

Sources told OpIndia that the decision was taken at the request of Ministry of Home Affairs and law enforcement agencies to prevent any escalation of law and order in view of the on-going farmer agitation. The accounts and tweets were ordered to be withheld after being perceived as incitement and a threat to public order.

However, within hours, the accounts were restored by Twitter. The social media giant said that it had held discussions with government officials and conveyed to them that spreading fake news that has the potential to unleash massive violence falls under the purview of freedom of speech. The Government of India has on Wednesday sent a notice to the platform for violating Indian laws.

The government has also warned Twitter of consequences for non-compliance of directions issued under section 69A of the IT Act.

Himanta Biswa Sharma slams ‘communal Miyas’ from Bangladesh, says they distort Assamese culture: Watch what he said

OpIndia Staff
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Himanta Biswa Sharma slams ‘communal Miyas’ from Bangladesh, says they distort Assamese culture: Watch what he said

On Wednesday, Assam Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma slammed the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants who have infiltrated the State of Assam. While speaking to reporters, the BJP leader emphasised, “Assam Muslim population is divided into two streams; one who has come to Assam from Bangladesh & others who are indigenous.” He further added, “Some people who had come to Assam at different point of time have started to identify themselves as ‘Miya’ & they are very communal”

Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the ‘Miya’ Bangladeshis have been involved in the distortion of Assamese language and culture. “So, I don’t be MLA with their votes. My personal opinion is that the people who openly challenge Assamese culture, language & composite Indian culture shouldn’t vote for us,” the BJP leader concluded.

He had earlier emphasised that the ‘Miya Muslims’ do not vote for the saffron party. “Miya Muslims don’t vote for us. I’m saying this on the basis of experience,they didn’t vote us in Panchayat & 2014 Lok Sabha polls. BJP will not get votes in seats that are in their hands,while other seats are our,” Sarma reiterated.

Maulvi’s job to preach religion, students’ education is govt’s job

On January 25, Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Health and Education Minister of Assam said that the recent step to close state-run madrasas was right. He was answering ABP News’s question on allegations made by All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) leader Badruddin Ajmal who alleged if the BJP government comes in power again, it will close down mosques and madrassas.

Sarma asserted that after being re-elected, the BJP government in Assam will work to bring education in madrasas at par with mainstream education in schools by introducing maths, computers and science. “Muslim clerics’ job is to go to the mosque to teach religion. It is the responsibility of the government to educate students, it is the job of education minister. We will fulfil our responsibility and they should fulfil their responsibility. Where is the dispute in this?” Sarma added.

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